Bioidentical Hormone Therapy Q & A

What is BioIdentical Hormone Replacement Therapy?

Hormone balance is essential to optimal body function and health. However, as we age, our bodies produce less of the essential hormones required for maintaining optimal health and well-being. Additionally, hormonal imbalance is caused by environmental chemicals found in pesticides, plastics, and non-stick cookware, to name a few. Synthetic Estrogens are also fed to dairy cows to make them produce more milk and to beef cows to fatten them up for the market. These synthetic estrogens cause imbalances in us that result in a variety of physical and emotional symptoms, including:

Weight gain

Hot flashes

Mood changes

Brain fog

Decreased libido

Vaginal atrophy

Thinning bones

Hormone Deficiencies and Imbalances Cause Serious Health Risks

You need to know that these symptoms are not merely trivial or vain or fleeting or that you will just have to learn to live with them. They are signs of hormonal imbalances that can lead to serious disease, including osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancer if left untreated. Women do not need to suffer from the symptoms of menopause or resort to taking harmful synthetic drugs to avoid them. You need to know that you have a choice. You can take natural, Bio-Identical Hormones, which are safe and effective alternatives to the synthetic Estrogens and Progestins that are known to increase your risk of cancer, strokes and heart disease. The correct balance of Bio-Identical Hormones can stop the maddening symptoms of menopause and help you recover your healthy mind and body and feel great again.

What Are Bioidentical Hormones?

Bio-Identical Hormones are hormones compounded by doctors and pharmacists from natural plant extracts. They are virtually identical to the naturally occurring hormones made by the body, including the three estrogens: estrone, estradiol, and estriol, as well as progesterone, pregnenolone, testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol. Because they are identical to what the body makes they are not associated with the severe list of side-effects associated with synthetic hormones. Because Bio-Identical Hormones come from plants they cannot be patented. In essence, God holds the patent to these plant based hormones. That is the only reason drug companies don’t make them. Without a patent, there is no market exclusivity and hence no financial incentive to bring the product to market.

Don’t Take Hormone Pellets, Pills or Creams!

Hormone pellets implanted under the skin are designed to last 3-4 month. This sounds very convenient, but that convenience comes with a price, in that it often leads to a buildup of hormones including the harmful Estrogen, Estradiol, which is known to cause cancer. I often see women as patients who have been on Hormone Pellets and find that their Estradiol levels are 10 times too high, and those high levels stay high for as much as a year after the last implant. This puts them at increased risk of Breast, Uterine and Ovarian Cancer, especially if they are not taking Estriol and Progesterone in the proper balancing levels. Additionally, the Pellets are required by the FDA to be sterilized either by radiation or Ethylene oxide, a potential neurotoxin. Hormone pellet implants are frankly dangerous and should be avoided.

Oral pills are only about 20% absorbed, while 80% of the hormones will be taken up by the liver and be eliminated by the body before getting a chance to accomplish their tasks.

Creams are messy, poorly absorbed and eventually the skin stops absorbing them almost entirely, because the skin is designed to be a barrier and to keep chemicals out of the body.

What is the Best Way to Take Hormones?

The best way to take Bio-Identical Hormones is to dissolve them under your tongue (sublingual) so that they get absorbed directly into the bloodstream across the mucous membranes of the mouth. This area of the mouth is rich in capillary blood vessels that can readily absorb Bio-Identical Hormones. This method allows the natural hormones to go right to work to perform their function to heal and rejuvenate the body before being broken down and eliminated by the liver.

The safest way to take Bio-Identical Hormones, is the Sublingual, or under-the-tongue delivery method. I have spent many years developing just the right combination of Bio-Identical Hormones in just the right ratios and combinations that dissolve quickly under the tongue and are free of extraneous, harmful, or unnecessary ingredients. This means that you can take your hormones every night just before bedtime and they will pass completely through your entire body’s circulation to reach all the intended tissue and perform all the necessary rejuvenating functions before being removed by the liver just in time for you to take your next day’s dose 24 hrs later.

There are several good studies on the safety and efficacy of bioidentical hormones, including one large-scale study of 54,548 postmenopausal women that compared the risks associated with synthetic and bio-identical hormones. For this reason, I recommend testing before and after dosing to make sure your levels are optimal. Bioidentical hormones have been used safely in Europe for almost fifty years.

Dr. Hansen is committed to the well-being and safety of all of his patients. Anyone receiving bioidentical hormones is thoroughly tested to determine the most accurate dosage needed to provide optimally balanced hormones. Dr. Hansen only uses the highest quality pharmaceutical grade (USP) bioidentical hormones to raise deficiencies to optimal levels.

Dr. Hansen closely monitors his patients to ensure that the dosage remains correct so that each patient can reach his or her optimal level of health and well-being and overcome the physiological stresses created by hormone deficiencies.

What Hormones Should Men & Women be Taking?

Balance is the key to optimal health and vitality. Dr. Hansen tests all of the key hormones required in men and women, including Estrone, Estradiol, and Estriol, as well as Progesterone, Pregnenolone, Testosterone, Free Testosterone, SHBG, DHEA, Cortisol, Growth Hormone, and Thyroid. Once your levels are determined the correct dose of each can be chosen for your individual case. It typically takes 1-3 weeks to get the hormone levels up to optimal levels and get you feeling great again. Many patients say Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy makes them feel better than they have ever felt before. They feel happier, healthier, stronger, clearer, sharper and more alive than they have ever felt before.